HITC Editors' Top 5 Games of 2014: Adam

2014 is almost over, and now it's time to pick out our top 5 games before we head into 2015.

Christmas is over, sadly. It came and went in a flash, for me at least. I didn't get much time for gaming in-between all the present opening, feasting, and drinking wine, although I did sneak in a couple of Dota 2 matches. Now it's time for each of us here at HITC Tech to look back over 2014 and pick out our top 5 games of the year.

It took me quite some time to decide on my favourite game of 2014, I panicked, knowing I had played quite a few great games - myself and the other members of the HITC Tech team wrote about our top picks over here. When we eventually spoke about naming our top five, I panicked once more - "top 5 games, this will be tough," I thought, but actually it was surprisingly easy to name 5 pretty quickly.

The games are in no particular order, although if you've read our top games of the year piece you'll know that Super Smash Bros. on the Wii U is my most favourite of 2014.

OK, so here we go, check out my top 5 games of 2014:

Super Smash Bros.

I won't say too much about Smash, as you can read more of my thoughts about it in my review and when I named it my game of 2014. But, it's certainly a game you need to pick up if you own a Nintendo Wii U. It's a big nostalgia trip for me each time I play, and despite that personal connection with it, it's just a blast to pummel the more annoying Nintendo characters, especially against other people.

The Last of Us Remastered

It's been a bit of of an eye-opening experience for me this year - I was late to the whole 'The Last of Us appreciation society', but when my girlfriend bought me a PS4 a couple of months ago, with a copy of The Last of Us, I was totally blown away. I wrote a couple of pieces on my experience with the game, first about my attempts at avoiding spoilers for over a year, along with my first impressions, and then I wrote another after I had finished the game and gushed about it, a lot.

The Last of Us Remastered is something that everyone needs to play, at least once - it's that good, no, it's great! It's a game that I will no-doubt be coming back to for years to come.

Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor

Each of the games in this list aren't necessarily the ones I have written reviews for this year, but Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor is in fact one of those games. It was actually a game I almost named my game of the year instead of Smash.

Shadow of Mordor is a power-trip. Once you've mastered the combat system you can pull off some impressive orc-slaying, encountering many, many enemies at once and eventually killing them all completely unscathed. It's incredibly satisfying.

Mordor also stands out for its innovation in gameplay, bringing in the Nemesis system which gives you unique encounters with all enemies you face, telling your own story and bringing up some great moments that will make you crack a smile here and there. Or it may even cause you to shout in disbelief that the orc you thought you'd slayed an hour ago has reappeared to dish out some revenge upon you. Read more of what I thought in my review here.

Destiny

A controversial choice for some. Destiny didn't deliver on the hype it had built up for many people when it was released a few months ago, but I'm still playing it.

Sure, there is a largely-unexplained plot, but I still keep in my mind that it's a story which will be told over a 10 year period. Whether that sits OK with you or many others is up to you to decide.

The main hook that's kept me coming back to Destiny is the gameplay. It's an FPS that's pretty much seamless in terms of mechanics, it feels great to move around and gun down enemies. And the other major hook is loot, which had some major problems to begin with, and isn't exactly a perfect system now, but I love creating characters and decking them out with shiny new gear I get from loot drops. My review of Destiny will shed more light for you than I can here.

GTA V

Another remastered game from last year, but you can't deny its greatness. GTA V was brilliant when it was first released, and now it's at a whole new level for the current generation of consoles.

I haven't reviewed the game, but I am enjoying playing through it again completely in the new first-person mode, which brings a whole new perspective to GTA V, literally and figuratively.

The graphics have been given a boost and the entire world looks so much crisper, and the frame rate has received a much-needed kick too.

Rockstar have set a great standard on how to remaster a much-loved game, and Los Santos has never looked so good.

There you have it, my top 5 games. 2014 has been a mixed bag in terms of releases, with disappointment from hype, bug-infested triple-A's, and I think everyone is still waiting for that one game which 'defines' this generation of consoles and gaming technology. Unless I've had my memory removed, I don't think 2014 brought such a generation-defining game. Whether we'll find that game in 2015 remains to be seen, but let's have some fun trying to find it!